The invention relates to material processing and more particularly to the processing of dry and granular materials, liquids, and slurries to obtain a homogenous compound, whether dry or liquid.
In many commercial settings, including commercial baking or chemical mixing processes, for example, materials commonly need to be sifted or mixed. Traditionally, this process has been accomplished with paddle-wheel type mixers or blenders. The traditional mixing machine comprises a barrel-like enclosure that is laid horizontally with a paddle shaft extending horizontally through the enclosure. An array of mixing paddles extend generally radially outward from the shaft, in the enclosure, and rotate with the shaft to mix selected ingredients that are placed in the enclosure. These traditional mixing machines are, however, quite slow. They also fail to sift the ingredients, thus requiring an additional processing step with additional equipment to break up clumps of material, or sift the mixture. Further, it is inherent in the traditional paddle type mixer that the mixing process occurs on a large scale. That is to say that the batch of mixture may have the desired ratios of the selected ingredients, but any given, small sample of the mixture may not. The resulting mixture may not be homogenous.
One may, then, realize a need for equipment that provides high speed mixing and sifting of ingredients, either wet or dry, to quickly provide a homogenous blend.